Saturday, June 06, 2009

Dubai's first revolving skyscraper

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.

The Dynamic Tower (David Fisher) design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.

"It's the first building that rotates, moves, and changes shape," said architect David Fisher, who is Italian, at a news conference in New York.

"This building never looks the same, not once in a lifetime," he added.

The 420-metre (1,378-foot) building's apartments would spin a full 360 degrees, at voice command, around a central column by means of 79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

The apartments, which will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, will cost from $3.7m to $36m.

The skyscraper will cost an estimated $700m to build and should be up and running in Dubai in 2010.